15 And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus having gone into the temple, began to cast forth those selling and buying in the temple, and the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling the doves, he overthrew, 16 and he did not suffer that any might bear a vessel through the temple, 17 and he was teaching, saying to them, 'Hath it not been written—My house a house of prayer shall be called for all the nations, and ye did make it a den of robbers?' 18 And the scribes and the chief priests heard, and they were seeking how they shall destroy him, for they were afraid of him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching;
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Mark 11:15-18
Commentary on Mark 11:12-18
(Read Mark 11:12-18)
Christ looked to find some fruit, for the time of gathering figs, though it was near, was not yet come; but he found none. He made this fig-tree an example, not to the trees, but to the men of that generation. It was a figure of the doom upon the Jewish church, to which he came seeking fruit, but found none. Christ went to the temple, and began to reform the abuses in its courts, to show that when the Redeemer came to Zion, it was to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The scribes and the chief priests sought, not how they might make their peace with him, but how they might destroy him. A desperate attempt, which they could not but fear was fighting against God.